The “Miracle on Ice” 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team didn’t come back four years later and beat the Soviets again. N.C. State, after shocking Hakeem Olajuwon and Houston, didn’t come out of nowhere in the following NCAA tournament. Rollie Massimino and Villanova didn’t get a rematch and once more coach the Wildcats past the Georgetown Goliath. The Miracle Mets of ’69 didn’t repeat. James “Buster’’ Douglas shocked and knocked Mike Tyson out once, not twice.

Doing the seemingly impossible is difficult enough the first time. Getting it done again is not the way it’s supposed to work. The beauty of a magical season is that it is isolated in time, never to be duplicated.

The 2007 Giants belong in the company of the select few championship teams that not only won the grand prize but did it in such improbable fashion that the victory resonates beyond that team and that city. Not many believed the Giants could knock off the unbeaten Patriots that night in Glendale, Ariz., and when they did the revelers were not only blue-clad loyalists but also those who recognized an inspiring story when, like David Tyree, it smacked them in the head.

That epic 17-14 comeback victory in Super Bowl XLII will stand the test of time but can no longer stand by itself, not after lightning struck twice in four years, again hitting the Patriots where it hurts. Once is a novelty, twice is a legacy, and three times is a dynasty.

The Giants aren’t there just yet but, by coming back yet again in the last minute, this time for a 21-17 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, the 2011 team gets to share the glory with the ’07 Giants. Even though the franchise went four years between playoff wins, the linkage is unmistakable. Two titles in four years means the first wasn’t a magnificent blip on the screen. It means general manager Jerry Reese has built a sustainable program. It means coach Tom Coughlin’s system has staying power. It means Eli Manning and Justin Tuck, among others, get to experience the rare pleasure of comparing titles.

Losing six games in the regular season and claiming the Vince Lombardi Trophy was considered quite a feat back in ’07, but this year’s team became the first in NFL history to win just nine games during the season and win the Super Bowl. The 2011 Giants also were the first team in league history to score fewer points than it allowed and still win it all.

This is a new way of rope-a-doping your way to a title: Wear ’em all out, stand tall at the finish.

The Giants did not reinvent how to get to Super Bowls and how to win them once they get there, but they sure are providing an updated blueprint. Dominating during the season, winning the division, composing a gaudy record, gaining home-field advantage, getting a playoff bye week to rest up — these were all tried-and-true formulas for marathon postseason runs.

The Giants trashed that familiar script by winning five road playoff games in their two Super Bowl surges without the benefit of any time off. No one ever viewed the Giants as unbeatable and, once they defied logic, no one was anointing them as capable of repeating that feat.

“We got in, got hot and were able to finish the season on top,’’ Reese said. “The margin of error between winning and losing and making the playoffs is really small. The ball can bounce one way or another and you’re in, it can bounce the other way and you’re out. All the teams are pretty evenly matched, you got to have a little bit of luck to make it, you got to have some good players and some good coaches.’’

Anyone fearing the Giants four years ago exhausted their little bit of luck can exhale, as a fresh supply allowed the Giants to win a division title despite a nine-win season that included two losses to the last-place team in the NFC East, the Redskins. That good fortune continued with the Giants avoiding a postseason visit to New Orleans, where the Saints in recent years have proven they have what it takes to not merely beat the Giants but to embarrass them.

Heck, the Giants fumbled three times last week and didn’t lose any of them and watched as Velcro-handed Wes Welker and Aaron Hernandez dropped passes that should have stuck. No one will ever scoff at good fortune but the flip side is no one was calling the Giants blessed or charmed when their players dropped like bowling pins, 13 of them landing on injured reserve.

In this NFL era, when there have been two repeat Super Bowl champions in the past 18 years and none in the past seven, greatness is not measured in years or even months, but weeks. After 15 of ’em, the Giants were 7-7, but they were 6-0 in the next seven.

The Giants say they can do it again in 2012, but history says they won’t. Reese has great confidence in his ability and the work of the personnel department to find players, and he likes the roster he’s assembled.

“I think fans think about the here and now. We think about that as well, obviously, because you want to win every year,’’ Reese said, “but we definitely think a couple of years down the road in respect to personnel.

“When you try to look into the future you always want to look on your roster first, in our opinion, is the guy that you need already on your roster before you go out and look from someone somewhere else? Because more times than not the guy is already on your squad.’’

There were enough guys on the 2011 squad to produce a once-in-a-lifetime season, for the second time in four years.